Planful vs Unit4 ERP

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Our analysts compared Planful vs Unit4 ERP based on data from our 400+ point analysis of EPM Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Formerly Host Analytics, Planful is a financial planning and analysis cloud platform. It accelerates end-to-end FP&A. Suitable for midsize to large-scale businesses, it helps by centralizing data and managing financial and operational processes.

It helps users plan and manage reviews, approvals and submissions and generates workflow status reports to check the performance of every department. It helps analyze asset performance by using financial budgeting and forecasting techniques with its capital planning feature. It is a scalable solution that allows companies to check the effect of projects on the overall bottom line.
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Unit4 ERP leverages a natural language digital assistant to expedite day-to-day business activities and provides a seamless user experience. Its financial management module offers real-time visibility and control over each stage of the record-to-report cycle. It consolidates enterprise-wide data within a unified system to streamline budget planning and analysis.

Automate and streamline project life cycles, optimize resource utilization and execute projects with precision with the project management inclusion.
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$1,250 Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
$49/User, Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Assistance

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Product Insights

  • Conduct Ad hoc Analysis: Simplify complex ad hoc analysis by quickly creating financial and operational models while simultaneously checking the impact of these models on the bottom line. 
  • Close Books Faster: Decrease the time it takes to close books by automating data collection, aggregation and validation. Make data secure and compliant with standards and protocols.  
  • Improve Collaboration: Collaborate in a more efficient manner with current data and real-time insights. Get the power to make quick and accurate decisions with more confidence.  
  • Get Insights: Make well-informed decisions by gaining insights from across an organization to drive long-term value and growth. Automate manual processes to gain more time for strategic planning processes, analyzing and collaborating rather than worrying about spreadsheets.  
  • Automate Manual Processes: Save time and reduce errors by automating manual financial processes. Ensure that all financial processes are done with minimum manual effort and run more efficiently.  
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  • Planning and Control: Increase planning speed to empower businesses to grow exponentially and respond to opportunities. 
  • Make Data-Driven Decisions: Gain useful insights into the data to make better business decisions and allocate and utilize business resources optimally. 
  • Boost Employee Retention: Engage, support and inspire people to perform better to boost employee retention rate. 
  • Accelerate Learning: Empower employees to learn at their own pace and develop their skillsets for career growth and development. 
  • Improve Employee Experience: Automate back-office tasks and interact with systems via natural language digital assistant to carry out day-to-day business activities to improve employee experiences. 
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  • Modern Tools: Combine the need for structured and dynamic planning to empower organizations to make well-informed decisions in a quick and strategic manner.  
  • Financial Consolidation: Accelerate month-end closing cycles with financial consolidation. Enhance financial planning and reporting by leveraging data from a single source of truth. Get pre-built consolidation functionality for currency conversion and reporting, currency translation adjustment calculations and posting. Implement functional, administrative and setup changes without the need for IT experts. Boost teams’ agility when reacting to changes in organization, strategy, regulation and accounting protocol. Ensure trusted and consistent global reporting by automatically mapping financial data. Keep tabs from start to end on balances, and analyze financial data across consolidation activities.  
  • Structured Planning: Save time and reduce errors by automating labor-intensive financial planning activities. Avoid costly and disruptive customization fees, save time and reduce risk of error with predefined planning and reporting templates. Automate integration from any ERP, CRM or HCM. Create a single source of financial truth by automatically collecting, aggregating and validating financial data. Ensure consistency and accuracy by creating and modifying structured financial reports and elevating financial conversations. 
  • Dynamic Planning: Analyze, plan and make confident decisions with dynamic planning. Build custom-tailored financial models. Leverage customization across processes, functions and use cases. Configure planning experiences and give users the flexibility to plan for anything. Connect data sources from separate systems in one unified, cloud-based platform. Boost financial decision making with a single source of truth. Get insights and make course corrections with real-time data refreshing. Inculcate companywide collaboration culture by providing the right data at the right level to the right person.  
  • Integration: Automate data integration to reduce manual intervention and easily transform data with over 200 pre-built connectors. Adjust to automatic data processing with a growing integration platform. Check status and activity of deployed integrations from a centralized place. Ensure data integration process flows are repeatable, automated and secure, and provide audit trails required by internal and external auditors. Understand changes in data with multiple validation points across integration workflows. 
  • Reporting: Leverage reporting formats and delivery options to meet financial, management and ad hoc needs. Ensure data accuracy and transparency with self-service reporting and automated report distribution. Automate collection and aggregation of financial and business data into a single cloud-based platform. Ensure everyone is working with current and accurate information derived from a single source of truth. Boost financial IQ with self-service reporting capabilities. Create a more agile environment with impactful financial decision making. 
  • Annual Operating Plan: Build collaborative financial plans that align with business objectives. Turn annual plans into quarterly or monthly rolling forecasts, and check models for different scenarios to determine how to realign and adjust strategies.  
  • Workforce Planning: Plan accordingly for workforces by connecting HR, finance and operational data together. Create a headcount plan that can be adjusted to changing marketing requirements. Gain insight to build winning strategies and utilize employees as strategic assets. Boost financial IQ to understand and influence impacts on the financial health of workforce costs.  
  • Cash Flow Forecasting: Assess the impact of decisions by gaining complete control and visibility over finances. Reallocate cash by identifying trends and understanding levers. Mitigate cash flow risk by adjusting investment opportunities.  
  • Scenario Analysis: Analyze every option by planning across multiple case scenarios and assessing key drivers. Bring agility by optimizing current period results. Gain the flexibility to discover deeper insights across a broad range of models. Align executives and business partners with data-driven decisions. Check the impact of plan changes from every level with immediate results. 
  • Rolling Forecasts: Adjust to sudden changes, keep forecasts current and business agile with continually rolling planning periods. Automatically keep tabs on the impact of actuals on forecasted trends. Improve risk analysis by quickly identifying opportunities and risks as business landscapes evolve. Align rolling forecasts by collaborating across different departments. Gain real-time insights to redirect resources and priorities and align them with business objectives.  
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  • Financial Management: Consolidate organization-wide data to streamline budget planning and analysis. Plan cash flow, manage operational budgets and forecast sales, costs and revenue with a financial planning module. Create robust data visualizations to plan and manage budgets and forecasts while mitigating risks. 
  • Project Management: Streamline and automate end-to-end project lifecycle. Gain complete visibility and control over project and people planning, scheduling, resource management and cost and budget analysis. Leverage project templates to automate the project setup and manage complex projects. 
  • Procurement Management: Connect directly with the approved suppliers for reduced overheads and increased accuracy and control. Use a centralized procure-to-pay solution to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Gauge spending patterns accurately to negotiate better pricing and terms and conditions. 
  • Analytics and Reporting: Unearth hidden patterns, trends and relationships in historical data to comprehend risk and opportunities. Leverage AI and self-service analytics tools to analyze and drill down data to the transactional level. Create and share automated reports to facilitate collaboration. 
  • Core HR: Manage the entire hire-to-retire cycle with a centralized database and control center. Record, monitor and report employees’ absence with the expense management module. Automate approval and expense calculations to minimize administration for employees and managers. 
  • Payroll Management: Leverage the payroll management module to synchronize HR data, gain agility and manage complex calculations. Streamline and automate payroll processes and create custom reports using employee and payroll data to visualize insights and make data-driven decisions. 
  • Talent Management: Build and develop a workforce to create high-performing teams using performance management tools. Roll out mini-surveys to specific teams to understand employees, spot trends and predict employee turnover. 
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Product Ranking

#9

among all
EPM Software

#34

among all
EPM Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

88
82
96
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96
75
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87
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Reports and Dashboards
Sales Planning
Capital Expenditure Planning
Cash Management
Project Planning
Project Planning
Reports and Dashboards
Profitability Modelling and Analysis
Planning, Budgeting,and Forecasting
Financial Consolidation and Reconciliation

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Planful
Unit4 ERP
+ Add Product + Add Product
Capital Expenditure Planning Cash Management Financial Consolidation And Reconciliation Planning, Budgeting,and Forecasting Platform Capabilities Profitability Modelling And Analysis Project Planning Reports And Dashboards Revenue Planning Sales Planning Workforce Planning 96 96 85 80 72 94 95 100 94 100 86 81 75 87 91 75 97 100 100 57 86 69 0 25 50 75 100
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

75%
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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 82 reviews
Good User Sentiment 89 reviews
86%
of users recommend this product

Planful has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 86% when considering 82 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

74%
of users recommend this product

Unit4 ERP has a 'good' User Satisfaction Rating of 74% when considering 89 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

n/a
3.7 (70)
4.29 (41)
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4.3 (41)
3.7 (7)
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4.1 (7)
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2.8 (5)

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Planful and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Sales Planning.

Sales Planning Award

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Unit4 ERP and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Project Planning.

Project Planning Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Streamlined Financial Close: Planful helps automate routine tasks like data consolidation and report generation, which can significantly reduce the time it takes to close the books each month. This efficiency is often praised by users in fast-paced environments.
Improved Forecasting Accuracy: The platform's forecasting tools leverage historical data and predictive analytics to generate more accurate forecasts. Users appreciate this feature as it allows for better-informed decision-making and resource allocation.
Enhanced Collaboration: Planful provides a centralized platform for finance teams to collaborate on budgeting, forecasting, and reporting. This feature improves communication and transparency within the department, leading to more cohesive financial strategies.
Customizable Reporting: Users frequently highlight the ability to create custom reports tailored to their specific needs. This flexibility allows finance teams to analyze data from multiple angles and gain deeper insights into their financial performance.
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Industry-Specific Solutions: Unit4 ERP offers tailored solutions for specific sectors like education and non-profits, addressing their unique needs.
User-Friendly Interface: Many users praise the system's intuitive design, making it easy to navigate and use.
Cloud-Based Accessibility: Unit4 ERP's cloud-based nature allows for convenient access from any location with an internet connection.
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Steep Learning Curve: Many users find Planful's interface to be complex and unintuitive, requiring significant time investment to learn the system's intricacies. The abundance of features can be overwhelming for new users, leading to frustration and a slow adoption rate within organizations.
Customization Challenges: While Planful offers customization options, implementing them often requires advanced technical skills or reliance on the vendor's professional services, which can be costly. This limitation can hinder organizations with unique workflows or reporting needs from fully tailoring the software to their specific requirements.
Reporting Limitations: Some users report that generating specific or ad-hoc reports can be cumbersome in Planful. The system's pre-built reports may not always cater to every organization's needs, and creating custom reports may require technical expertise or additional support.
Performance Issues: A segment of users has mentioned experiencing slow loading times and occasional system lags, particularly when working with large datasets or complex reports. This can impact productivity and user satisfaction, especially for organizations with high data volumes or demanding reporting requirements.
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Complex User Interface: Some users find the interface difficult to navigate and not intuitive, leading to a steep learning curve.
Reporting Limitations: Users have reported difficulties in generating custom reports and extracting specific data, hindering data analysis and decision-making.
Integration Challenges: Integrating Unit4 ERP with other systems can be complex and require significant technical expertise, potentially leading to delays and increased costs.
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Planful has garnered a reputation for its robust financial reporting and analysis capabilities, particularly excelling in budgeting, forecasting, and consolidation. Users appreciate the software's ability to handle complex financial models and its flexibility in generating custom reports. The platform's intuitive interface and user-friendly design have also been praised, making it accessible to both finance professionals and non-financial users. However, some users have noted that the initial setup and implementation process can be time-consuming and may require significant support from Planful's team. Additionally, while Planful offers a wide range of features, some users have expressed a desire for more advanced functionality in areas such as workforce planning and project accounting. Compared to competitors like Adaptive Insights and Vena Solutions, Planful stands out for its comprehensive financial consolidation capabilities and its ability to handle large volumes of data. Its reporting and analytics tools are also considered to be more user-friendly and customizable. However, Adaptive Insights may be a better choice for organizations seeking a more cloud-based solution with stronger integrations with other business applications. Vena Solutions, on the other hand, may be more suitable for companies with complex financial modeling needs due to its Excel-based interface. Overall, Planful is best suited for mid-sized to large enterprises with complex financial reporting and analysis requirements. Its strengths lie in its budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, and reporting capabilities, making it an ideal choice for organizations looking to streamline their financial processes and gain deeper insights into their financial performance. However, companies with limited IT resources or those seeking a more cloud-based solution may want to consider alternative options.

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Unit4 ERP is generally praised for its user-friendly interface, making it easy to navigate and find necessary information. Users highlight its flexibility, allowing customization to meet specific business needs and the ability to add new features as requirements evolve. The scalability of Unit4 ERP is also a plus, as users can easily add users and new locations as their businesses grow. One user even stated that Unit4 ERP is the most user-friendly ERP solution they've ever used. However, while Unit4 ERP can scale for growth, it's worth noting that it's primarily built for smaller organizations. This makes it a great option for smaller businesses that plan to scale, as they can have a solution that provides the breadth of capabilities they need now and in the future. Unit4 ERP is best suited for small to mid-sized organizations that are looking for a user-friendly, flexible, and scalable ERP solution. Larger organizations with more complex needs may find that Unit4 ERP lacks some of the features and functionality they require. It's always a good idea to check for the most up-to-date user reviews and product information, as software capabilities can change rapidly.

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